Back to School Tech Safety Tips San Diego Families Must Know

August is Back to School Safety Month and it’s important that parents encourage kids to take proper precautions in regards to their physical safety and also cyber/technology safety. The risks associated with kids and technology include distracted driving, cyberbullying, sharing personal information, among others.

With local students headed back to school, AT&T San Diego has prepared the below tips to help parents ensure that their kids are ready to tackle the new school year safely.

Don’t Drive Distracted. No text, glance, post, or email is worth a life. #ItCanWait. Tell your kids to put down their phone and take advantage of apps that help prevent distracted driving, like the free AT&T DriveMode app which silences incoming text message alerts and sends an auto-reply letting the sender know when driving.

Smartly Limit. Ask your internet provider what parental controls are available to you. For example, AT&T Smart Limits allows parents to block unwanted calls and data use; set text and purchase limits; limit phone use during certain times of day; check on daily phone activity; and get customized alerts and weekly reports. Parental controls for internet service include the ability to block access to specific services, view your child’s activities online, and receive tamper controls alerts.

Communicate and Set Clear Expectations. Know what your kids are doing online— talk with them about cyberbullying and other online issues regularly. Set clear expectations about what sites they can visit and what they are permitted to do online, and personally take time to monitor their online activity including web history and social media profiles.

Protect Your Privacy. Make sure your kids set all privacy settings on social media – the more private, the less likely the content posted is to be seen by strangers. Be sure they password-protect their phone and don’t share passwords with anyone. They can make a strong password by using a combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols—but make sure they can remember it!